Bearings in touchdown applications are subjected to very large momentary shock loads when the rotors they are supporting touch down. Known main failure modes of touchdown bearings are: load at impact leading to indentation marks in the raceways (brinelling); shaft orbital motion (“whirl” movement) may give very heavy bearing loads, especially in the case of backward whirl; and, fast acceleration leading to high sliding power and smearing damage. Typically, in a touchdown application, a bearing with a full complement design is used. Ceramic roller balls are typically used in order to obtain a good performance at the extremely high accelerations that are also experienced at rotor touchdown. However, ceramic balls as rolling elements have a very high modulus of elasticity compared to steel balls, resulting in increased brinelling.